Component transport systems are used to transport components from one location to another within large machine systems. Such systems can include pneumatic and gravity fed systems.
Pneumatic transport systems are used to transport components, such as razor cartridges, from one location to another typically remote location within large machine systems, e.g., from a magazine to a rotary table along a feed conduit. These systems typically can include a device to impart an air pressure differential along the system, e.g., a blower or vacuum pump, an injection nozzle, a narrow diameter tube that leads from a first point to a second point, and a mechanical control system that properly aligns the tubing over the appropriate first point, e.g., a specific position in a magazine. These transport systems often include no braking mechanism or can include a counter-flowing air stream to slow the components, e.g., once they reach the end of the tube at a delivery location.
In these systems, either the injection nozzle or the magazine moves to sequentially center the tubing over a specific point to receive a component or a stack of components. Once centered, the nozzle fires a blast of air that lifts and moves a stack of components out of the magazine and through a tube to a feed conduit. The components can move at very high velocities, and absent a braking system, impact a stop device once they reach the delivery location. Such impact can damage or misalign the components in the feed conduit.
Some pneumatic transport systems include a braking mechanism that includes one or more nozzles or openings upstream of the feed conduit. These nozzles or openings are supplied with high pressure air to produce one or more streams that flow in a direction opposite to the direction of the components. The high pressure air streams are set to slow the components approaching the delivery location. Although useful to slow the velocity of the approaching components, this braking mechanism requires careful calibration of the volume and speed of the counter-flowing air streams. Such systems are generally not configured to compensate for variations in approaching component velocities, conditions which are typical in pneumatic transfer operations. Nor can these systems compensate for variations in air pressure or flow rate through needle valves which are typical in production environments.